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The English soprano/mezzo-soprano, Emily Gray, began singing at the age of ten when her grandmother, during a family gathering, noticed an exceptional quality in her voice. Since November 1997 she has been studying with the soprano Celia Darby in Nidd, near Harrogate.
Since 1998 Emily Gray has entered and won many solo singing competitions at local festivals and was the runner-up in the Young Voice of the Year competition in Birmingham in 1999. She was a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year competition in both 1998 and 1999 and won the prestigious title of BBC Radio 2 Choir Girl of the Year in October 2000. She was Choir Girl of the Year from 15 October 2000 to 14 October 2001. Following the competition she rushed back to Harrogate where she was the soprano soloist in a performance of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah in the international Sing Messiah for Hospices charity fundraiser. Following much acclaim she was invited onto Yorkshire Television and performed her winning song from the BBC competition Calendar News. She has won a mayoral award for services to music in the local area as well as a grant to help her in the pursuit of her career in music.
Emily Gray’s title of BBC Radio 2 Choir Girl of the Year 2000 has led to many live and recorded broadcasts for local and national radio, including the Radio 4 Daily Service, Radio 2 Sunday Half Hour, Good Morning Sunday, and television. She also made a CD with the BBC for Sunday programmes. She performed on the BBC 1 Songs of Praise when she was part of the BBC Live Songs of Praise in Leeds in May 2001, and also made a series of three Songs of Praise that were broadcast in July 2001. BBC Look North has followed her progress through out 2001 and there have been both local and National BBC interviews.
Emily Gray was lucky enough to find a sponsor with whom she released a demo CD. The demo was sent to recording companies and at Christmas 2001 Emily was approached by Naxos to make an album for Easter 2002. The album "Passiontide", recorded in February 2002, was a classical chart topper at Number 7, and had excellent reviews in Gramophone and Classic FM magazine. With all her outside pursuits and GCSE’s as well as gaining a place at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester to do her A levels and study Voice and Piano, Emily has continued to support St Peter's choir at every opportunity. Now she is at Chetham's as a boarder, she is thoroughly enjoying the more in depth teaching the school offers. Emily will be performing at many concerts around the north and countrywide both as a soloist and with the school's excellent chamber choir. |
